When my sister asked me to join her in her new business venture I had not realised quite how important the right furniture would be in its success. I naively thought that if we offered the skills people wanted, success would follow. I certainly did not realise how quick people would be to judge our professionalism from our working environment!
Two weeks into our new venture, we received some very insightful, and not very positive, feedback from would-be clients. We failed to make two significant orders because our business was deemed to be sloppy on the strength of our surroundings. We had basically raided our houses (and our friends) of unwanted items to furnish our office and this created completely the wrong impression. As unfair as this was, we realised we had to rectify this as quickly as possible.
Being on a tight budget, we could not afford smart designer furniture and were in a dilemma. We discouraged clients from dropping in to the office and people sensed our hostility. Now my favourite uncle always used to say that bargains don’t just fall from the sky; you have to go out and hunt them down; but he was wrong for once. An ex-colleague told us of a furniture supplier with a planning service built in and a guarantee to supply and install attractive, affordable office furniture. It sounded too good to be true, but from the outset we were offered excellent advice.
The designer took spatial measurements and interviewed us about our needs. She then drew up three sets of plans for us to consider. She gave us some great advice about the best utilisation of space, future planning for when we were able to realise our ambition of employing more staff and about choosing furniture for comfort as well as functionality, all of which were to have a positive effect on our productivity.
Ordering and installing the furniture was the easiest part, even though there was lots of choice. Obviously, as a new business, we did not have a great deal of spare cash, but having learned the importance of furniture in creating the right impression, we were not prepared to settle for inferior or mis-matched oddments. The dealer, however, assured us that every piece would co-ordinate perfectly.
We had briefly considered buying refurbished furniture, as there are some great deals to be had on solid, well-designed and constructed items, but we felt this would be too risky. To achieve our uniform look and ensure we got exactly what we wanted at the very best price, we just let our designer take over. We had built up such a good relationship by this time that we were happy to accept all suggestions.
When the delivery day arrived, we enlisted the help of a couple of friends, but there was no real need. The installation went very smoothly and it was great seeing our new office emerge from the chaos of packing boxes. In no time at all our smart new office was ready and we hadn’t even lost a full business day.
Having a much more efficient environment seemed to make us more brisk and businesslike. We even revamped our wardrobes to incorporate a bit of power dressing! Well you can’t work in an ultra-smart office in jeans and T-shirts, can you? We really enjoy the look on our clients’ faces when they drop in on us, but we don’t encourage that too much because we’re far too busy with our successful business to waste too much time.
Author Resource:
If you are just setting up your business and are looking to fit it out to a professional standard then take a look atOffice Furniture Florida as an alternative to buying each types of furniture seperately.
They offer a complete contract furniture package for all of Florida and are well known as Office Furniture Miami specialists.
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